Passing
the green rooms, Waran shifted his eyes to glance at the opposite wall.
He didn’t acknowledge anyone standing guard. Head down, with a
clutch-sack over his shoulder, he shuffled past another set of rooms,
then the last of the North residences and into main storage. A few
guards recognized him well enough to call out and he nodded,
mournfully, without a pause. The closest Kyashin eyed the sack.

Waran
gave him a wan smile. “A few things to trade at family storage. They’ve
got one of those teal lamps from down south and Shoru…. He’s
been
meaning to try and buy….” Waran’s voice petered out and his ears
flattened jerkily. “I wanted to make sure Shoru had something nice to
wake up to.”

The others all nodded; a few of them
patted his
shoulder. Waran extricated himself with suitable reluctance. His
shoulders were slumped as he turned away.

Storage
was
empty of people but for one older man behind the old stone-slab of a
desk. He grunted at Waran, standing up to take the sack and sliding
over until he was standing at the door, facing the hallway. Neither
said a word as Waran’s stride changed. Ears sharp and erect, feet
slapping the ground angrily, he stomped into the cavernous maze of
permanent shelving and headed to the far side. Dodging small items that
had yet to be returned to their proper places, Waran started growling
as he walked.

He turned left at the fifteenth shelf
in, then
started counting under his breath each time he passed another opening.
A turn to the right and then he swore, his shin bumping up against a
small cabinet in the aisle. He kicked it so hard it tumbled down the
space between the shelves, cracking audibly against stone. Swearing
again, he stomped after it and shoved it out of the way, clearing a
space against the back wall.

This edge of the room
was exactly
the same as the other three walls, the ever-present creamy stone older
and less polished than most places in the citadel. Waran glanced back
at the shelves to his back, shifted one step to the right and verbally
marked the stone blocks up from the bottom, counting under his breath
again. His fingers tapped in seemingly random spots and then with one
push on a rougher block, low on the left side, a small section of the
wall slid aside. Waran walked into the shadows, waiting to continue
until the door closed behind him.

He stopped at a
harsh whisper from the dark.

“Where’s Antal?”

“Dead,
I think.”

“Dead?” The shadow voice snarled a few
times. “Did he give us away?”

“I doubt it. I’m
pretty sure a shokan
got him.”

There was a long pause. “A shokan.
In the
Hinta citadel?”

“Right in Prince Kasan’s garden.”

“What
happened?”

“I gave the map and the guards’
schedule to Antal, waited for over an hour for him to meet me here, but
he never showed. Then a shokan
was spotted in the citadel and blood found in Prince Kasan’s gardens.”

“Nasty
way to die.” Another long silence. “There was nothing about an attempt
on the human?”

“Not a sound. I doubt Antal even got
into the room.” Waran shrugged.

“Still, it puts us
in a difficult position. If any part of his body is left to be
identified, it could expose us.”

“I’m keeping an eye
on the situation. So far, they have nothing.”

“Yet.
We need to get the human immediately, before they do find anything.
You’re going to have to take care of this.”

“You’re
here, you’re trusted, and you have access. And we don’t know how much
time we have.”

“Pay Antal’s family for another
professional,” Waran snapped.

“Negotiations
take weeks. We were lucky last time that we’d already hired Antal when
the news broke about the human’s authenticity.”

Waran’s
eyes
were slits, his ears flat against his skull. “The human isn’t going
anywhere, and the lab is well hidden. We have plenty of time to hire
another from Antal’s family. But if I do it now, everyone will know exactly who took
the human.”

“Obviously.”

“That’s
not acceptable.” Waran growled low, a deep rumble in his chest.

There
was a matching rumble from the darkness. “It’s not negotiable.”

“I
might agree with the True Kyashin, but that doesn’t mean I’ll give up
my name for it. And we agreed that having me in this position was
better for us all! With Shovak gone, I’m fourth in command of the
military. Without Kasan, I’ll be third, and with the sympathy from
Shoru’s ‘permanent’ disability, I’ll make second or first. I’m not
giving up everything I’ve worked for, dammit.”

“That
was before we knew about the human. Having access to him is more
valuable than having you here. We won’t need
you here, once we have him. And you knew what might be required of you
when you joined. ‘Whatever it takes, to purify the race,’ even if that
means being cut off from your most distant mother’s cousin.”

Waran
growled again, his teeth grinding audibly. “That was never part
of this. I will not do it.”

There
was a shift in the unseen Kyashin’s voice. “I’m surprised you let
Shovak’s fate frighten you into running like a squickling.”

Waran’s
ears stayed low and flat. “Shovak has nothing to do with this. He’s
always been an arrogant ass, and he paid the price. I have no intention
of doing the same.”

“Don’t be naïve.” The voice
hardened. “And
don’t be more of a fool than you already are. It’s too late to change
your mind now. That human is our best chance to finally prove which
genes have been corrupting our bodies all these centuries. You will get him.”

“No!
I can get the family to understand once Kasan is gone, but not if they
know I was the one who took his consort.”

“You
don’t have a choice.”

“I won’t.” Sweat
dripped down the side of Waran’s face. “They’ll strike my name from the
family record.”

“It can be reinstated, when the
Hinta realize what a service was done for them.”

Waran
shook his head. “Prince Kasan will be dead. They won’t forgive that.”

“His
father is the Lord King. He has greater concerns than the well-being of
one tainted child out of many.”

“A
small sacrifice, paving the way for the cleansing of the race? It may
take a while, but I fully believe the Lord King will understand in the
end. Once the truth comes out, they will reward you for it. Have you
forgotten the story of Ayame? She was reviled, too, her name stricken,
until everyone realized what she’d done for the clans.”

Waran’s
ears shifted enough for the tips to be seen above his hair, but his
voice snapped as he spoke. “That’s a fairytale, not history. I won’t
sacrifice my place within the family on the slim chance that-”

Hard,
bare feet scraped rapidly against stone and a long spear darted out
from the darkness to nearly touch Waran’s throat. “Would you prefer to
make your sacrifice here and now?”

“Then
continue to do so. Bring the human through the tunnel tomorrow.”

“I
told you-”

The
other man stepped out from the darker shadows of the tunnel. Dressed in
a green tunic and pants, the small blond male stared at Waran with cold
eyes. His ears were perfectly still, and the hand holding the
long-handled blade never wavered, keeping it close to Waran’s throat.
“Loyal or not, Waran. Decide here and now. You’ll be rewarded as
greatly as the rest of us if you see this through, but only if you see
this through.”

Waran opened his mouth and the man
smiled coldly. “I’d think very
carefully before you answer.”

Waran’s eyes darkened.
He stared at the spear a long moment. “I’ll do it. But you’ll
still have
to wait. I need to get my consort. I can’t smuggle both he and the
human out that quickly.”

There was a long pause as
they stared at each other, and then the man let the spear drop.

“As
you say. Another half-day, then. Shoru hasn’t awoken?”

Waran’s
eyes left the spear and stared at the other man hard. “Not yet. Not for
another day, at least. The family thinks I’m sending him to a relative
in the town proper. I need one of the cells for him.”

The
man stepped back into the shadows. “Pick one, then. Get him taken care
of, and get the human.
Don’t disappoint us on this, Waran. Actions speak louder than words,
when it comes to loyalty.” The voice was retreating down the corridor.
“And True Kyashin do not suffer disloyalty.”

Waran
glared coldly
into the darkness, waiting. The sound of footsteps grew fainter, and
then there was silence. Hitting the wall with his fist, he turned with
a snarl and headed back to the storage room.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Leero
woke up humping the Lord King’s leg.

He
should have realized who the limb belonged to, but the thick, muscled
thigh, with its faint furring of crisp hair, felt so fucking good that
Leero couldn’t think at all. He just kept humping, rubbing his cock
against it so hard that he could feel his foreskin slipping off the
weeping head as he tightened his buttocks and thrust.

Something
shifted and he tightened his legs to keep the friction in place. His
arms wrapped around a broad waist, pulling the body closer so he could
nuzzle it. The skin smelled so much like sex that he growled. He wanted
to lick it all over and then he’d keep pumping his hips until he found
something to slam into and then-

“Sorry to
interrupt-”

The deep, amused voice stopped Leero’s
body in mid-thrust.

“-but I’m afraid I’ll be needing
my leg back now.”

Leero
jerked away so fast he probably pulled out some of Kyoru’s leg hair. He
blinked in speechless horror at the large man next to him in bed. This
was worse than Kasan’s consort pissing on him. Worse than the time
Kasan had glued his loincloth to his ass. Worse than Service.

He’d
been humping the Lord King’s leg! And he had to dig his hands into the
mattress to keep from doing it again!

Kyoru
met his frantic stare with an amused smirk, shaking his head. “It’s a
natural reaction. You needn’t act as though you’ve eaten my
youngest child.”

Leero closed his eyes and tried not
to moan.
His dick was still stone-hard and crying to keep rubbing up against
Kyoru’s massive leg. The Lord King’s lack of outrage only made it that
much harder to keep away. Leero’s body was clamoring for him to go back
and finish what he’d started.

Dammit, this never
should have
happened! He should be out of Service and searching for a consort,
right this minute, but every damn time he tried to tell the Lord King
that he was in heat, something interrupted him. One of the Princes, the
Elders, or even a simple “Quiet, Leero,” from Kyoru.

And
now
his heat was making him sexually assault the Lord King in the man’s own
bed. Leero was taking this as a sign. He had to get the words out. Now.
No matter what tried to interfere. He had to end this before he
attacked someone.

“Lord King?”

Kyoru
lay casually on top of the silken sheets, watching him with half-lidded
eyes. “Yes?”

“I’m…”
Leero paused, almost surprised that nothing stepped in to cut him off.
“I’m in heat.” He waited to be relieved, his emotions swaying with the
realization that he would have to go search for a consort now. No more
time with the Lord King; Service would be put on hold.

He
didn’t feel as relieved as he’d expected.

“I thought
as much.”

“I know it’s a sur- What?”

Kyoru
chuckled. He sat up, stretching and getting out of bed as though Leero
had told him that they were low on cinnamon for firstmeal. “You’re not
the first person who’s gone into heat, Leero, nor the first to wish to
keep it private for a time. The signs are fairly obvious.”
His
eyes twinkled as he smiled. “I think the Elders were about to take bets
on how long you’d last before you told us.”

Leero’s
ears
flattened. He should have known. The Lord King had seen four sons
through their heat and an untold number of siblings and cousins. He
probably knew the signs inside and out. Why should Leero be
exempt from his notice, especially trapped in close proximity with him
nearly every hour, for days?

Leero raised his hand
to his collar and dropped it with a start as Kyoru’s voice stabbed out.
“What are you doing?”

He’d thought it was obvious.
“Taking the collar off .”

“You have to be given
leave.”

“But…I’m in heat.”

Kyoru
stared at him hard. “As I said, I’m aware of that. That
doesn’t
negate your Service unless you’re in the final stage. Are you?”

Leero
shook his head slowly. “But usually-”

“There
is ‘usually,’ and then there is the actual law. And according to the
law, you need to be given leave. The collar stays on.” The Lord King
turned his back and walked across the room to choose a loincloth, his
nude body drawing Leero’s eyes along like a cord. His voice softened.
“If this situation were ‘usual,’ I’d have taken your collar off the
moment I knew about the heat, whether I was told or no, but your
circumstances are…complicated.” Kyoru stared back at him after an odd
pause, his eyes running over Leero’s face.

Leero
heard him, but it was difficult to focus on his voice when the man’s
body was right there.
All this time with the Lord King had finally made him realize why the
older guards were always teasing the newly-ripe about older men. The
idea that Kyashin didn’t reach their sexual peak until after heat was
over, at forty, was a common boast. At fifty was even better,
when the heavier muscles developed fully.

The
Lord King was an uncomfortably good example of that; his muscles were
harder than his sons, somehow. More defined. And Leero shouldn’t be
noticing, so he shifted his eyes to stare past Kyoru’s body at the far
wall. He ran back the conversation in his head. Complicated
circumstances, yeah.

Leero nodded, slowly. That
described his life, these days. Shovak’s betrayal, the discovery of
other humans, the shokan
still at large, and Leero’s heat following so closely on Kasan’s heels?
‘Complicated’ was an understatement. Because if Kasan and
Leero
were unable to fulfill their duties, Shovak should have stepped in.
Now, it would be Davi, and with everything happening so quickly, Leero
hadn’t even had a chance to speak to him yet about what was going on.

If
Leero mated now, it could be a disaster.

He glanced
at Kyoru’s body again and swallowed heavily, yanking his eyes back up.
Complicated. Definitely complicated.

Leero
addressed the wall, just above the Lord King’s ears. “I- I
can
see what you mean. It, uh, it will be difficult for Davi to step in
before he’s brought up to date.”

Kyoru’s
ears stilled,
and then quivered oddly, almost as though he were laughing. “Yes.
Davi’s new role would definitely be part of the difficulty.” He stared
at Leero’s face again for another moment. “Are you able to keep from
going feral for another week? Or at least until we choose a contingent
for Tien’sa? As you say, it would be excessively difficult to
lose… two Kyashin of high position at the same time.”

Leero
made
the mistake of looking back at Kyoru to answer and found it impossible
to look away again. He nodded absently as his eyes drifted down.

Months
ago, he remembered seeing Tisu playing with Roto, down in the baths,
and he’d been impressed by the man’s ‘size.’ Now he knew with
absolute surety that Tisu had come by his assets naturally. Leero
stared at the Lord King’s cock, thick and long between heavy thighs.

“Leero?”

“Hmmm?”

“Can
you last that long?”

Leero’s
cock twitched and sucked more blood from his brain. Could he ‘last?’
“Of course. I can last a long time. A really, really long time….”

The
Lord King’s impressive example of male endowments rose under Leero’s
scrutiny. It disappeared as Kyoru turned away. “Leero, are you focused
on the proper subject right now?” His voice was definitely amused.

Leero
swallowed as he stared at Kyoru’s ass. It was very round, so
muscled he would never be able to span it with his hands.

“Leero?”

“Don’t
worry,” he mumbled. “I’m…completely focused.” And damn, Kyoru
still smelled fantastic. The smell was getting stronger as the man
turned again and started coming towards Leero. He was- “Ow!”

Leero’s
head snapped back. He rubbed at the tip of his nose where Kyoru had
flicked it. Hard.

“Leero,”
Kyoru’s eyes were very dark, all amusement gone. Leero
attempted
to push aside the hot blood taking over his body so that he could
listen. “I’m truly sorry that I have to ask this of you, but
I
need to know if you can wait for a partner a few more days.
Can
you do this?”

Closing his eyes, Leero made another
attempt to
regain control. He couldn’t imagine not doing what the Lord King asked,
but it was hard to imagine what good Leero would be to anyone. Every
part of him was focused on sex, and on top of that, his body was
spending too much time with Kyoru. It was starting to attach
itself to Kyoru, and that was a very, very bad idea.

Not
that late-stage matings didn’t happen – usually before 150 years of
age, of course – but not with the Lord King.

“Sire,
I’ll do what I can, but with the heat, I’m not sure….” His body didn’t
feel like it was his own to command anymore.

“If
you feel as though the heat is taking over, you can let me know. I have
no desire to see you act so precipitously that you choose an…
unsuitable partner.” Kyoru’s ears twitched oddly again.

“Thank
you. I’ll make sure and keep you informed.” Leero would just
have
to look for consorts while he was finishing up his service and
preparing Davi for his new role.

“Do that.” Kyoru’s
head tilted,
and he smirked suddenly. “Would you like a little time to take care of
that before we start our day?”

Leero stared at him
stupidly
until Kyoru gestured. It took him a moment to remember he was still
nude, and his erection was standing as tall as a pine. He flushed; only
his collar kept him from growling at the joke. There would be no relief
from ‘that’ until the moment he took a consort, no matter how much
Leero needed the release.

“I appreciate the
concern,” he said, his ears flat.

Kyoru
laughed, already on his way out the door. “Come find me at firstmeal
when you’re dressed. And no straying. As I said, I don’t need
you
getting out of control and taking a consort before everything is
properly prepared.”

The door closed on
the sound of
renewed chuckling, but Leero ignored it. He was already
grabbing
his cock, no matter how futile it was, and thinking of that round,
bubble ass and the musky sweetness of adult Kyashin.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lying
in bed next to Kasan, Max wondered when a ‘morning after’ would feel
normal. Not that he’d had many of them with his husband, considering
Kasan loved sneaking away before Max even had a chance to wake up, but
‘normal’ had to happen some time, didn’t it? This was his life, now,
right? Maybe it had only been days since he had been woken up with
vague dream-like memories of Kasan making love to him, and maybe
everything after had been like a rollercoaster of sex and giant aliens
and sex and marriage and dogs and pink blobs. And more sex.

But
this was what his life was going to be like now.

Max
really wished his nerves didn’t feel like tassels at the whole concept.
And not the pretty, silky, braided kind of tassels, but the ratty,
half-chewed ones that his cat had mauled while Max slept. Everything
was so strange and overwhelming, was it any surprised he felt at the
edge of his rope?

He’d get used to it eventually,
though, right? Of course he would. Every cross-racial, uh, cross-species couple
probably just needed some…

Kasan mumbled and pulled
him in close, his cock pushing against Max’s ass, and Max bit his lip
to keep from moaning.

… needed some adjustment time.

Purring in his sleep, Kasan cuddled Max closer. He
started to thrust leisurely with his hips.

“Mmmm, no,” Kasan said. He kissed the top of
Max’s head and thrust again.

“Kasan!”

There
was a chuckle against his hair. Kasan scooped Max up onto his chest.
“You are too adorable, Gisho.” He pulled Max higher and looked at him,
something bright in his eyes. Max licked his lips, bracing his hands on
Kasan’s shoulders and stared. Something was different.

Wait,
the
scratch across the face. Where the hell was the scratch. Max squinted,
staring, and just caught the faintest line over Kasan’s face, as though
the cut from the night before was weeks old.

Kasan
blinked at him slowly and it completely derailed Max’s inner-gripe. Was
Kasan’s face a little closer? It was, wasn’t it? Were they going to
kiss? Or his hands, Kasan was moving his hands, definitely. Maybe not
kissing. Maybe something else, something more…penetrative?

Or
was Kasan going to smile blindingly at him, squeeze him tight, and then
roll them both off the bed to stand up and head over to their discarded
loincloths, taking off his velvet collar as he walked. “No dawdling, sweetheart. Time
for firstmeal; we slept in late, today.”

No
sex? Max frowned until he realized what he was frowning about, and he
tried to focus finding where in the heck he’d tossed his clothes the
night before.

Okay, so Max was going to need a lot
of adjustment time before he figured this all out. And it was for more
than the whole marriage thing. There was the entire culture, and the
barbarian cats, and the freakazoid animals, and the weird,
incomprehensible blend of computers and freaking spears. And, again,
the cats, who watched him constantly whenever he wasn’t alone with
Kasan.

He wondered if all barbarians were natural
voyeurs.

The thought hit him again the moment they
left their room; he heard the guards whispering amongst themselves
across the hall.

Kasan’s voice cut in. “Has the shokan been found?”

“No, Prince Kasan.”

“And…the person it injured?”

“No body, and no one has been
reported missing, although we haven’t heard any news since the last
fifth.”

Kasan
nodded, his ears low against his head. Max wished he could figure out
what was so upsetting, but no one said anything to him as Kasan led him
away. Max couldn’t stop glancing back at the guards. No one was looking
- for once - but three sets of ears swiveled in their direction.

He
thought that counted, when it came to catmen. Like…like peeking, rather
than staring. Looking up at Kasan, he noticed the black ears flicking
back once before they rounded a corner. So Kasan was peeking, too. What
Max wouldn’t give to be able to understand a little more, though.

Kasan’s
hand reached down and took Max’s. His calluses were a little rough, in
a comforting, my-husband-could-kick-your-ass kind of way.

“What’s
wrong, sweetheart? Are you upset we didn’t have time for some bed fun
this morning? I’ll do my best to meet you earlier, today, so we can
have time together, but I’ll need to finish the inventory first. And we
have to take care of the shokan so you can be safe in the gardens. I’ll
need you to stay inside until it’s found. I think you can…”

Max
let the words flow over him, not really trying to pay attention for
once. It was rather nice just listening to Kasan’s deep voice, even if
he was worried about what had Kasan so tense. The big man was looking
like he had last night, before sex. On edge and tense.

Max
squeezed Kasan’s hand to try and let him know he was there. Not that
Kasan necessarily cared, but what else could he do? And when Kasan
squeezed it back, he figured it meant, well, something. Maybe
not much, but something.

They
turned a corner and Max bumped against Kasan’s hip. The hairs on his
arm stood on end where they’d touched, like his husband was made of
static electricity. Dropping his head, Max tried to look at their feet
instead of Kasan’s naked thigh. If they weren’t having sex, then he
needed a distraction. A boring distraction.

Nothing
was more boring than dirty feet.

Like
Kasan’s. They were broad, the same caramel as the rest of his skin,
with nice toes that looked odd at the same time – the toenails were
claws. Max hadn’t really noticed that before. And it should have been
really weird, or disgusting, or reminded Max of just how alien
everything was, of how alien his husband
was.

Instead, like everything else with Kasan, it
made Max’s insides quiver. Because it was actually a little hot.

“That
is so completely unfair. You should at least have ugly feet.”

Max’s
feet were ugly. Skinny things with long toes. A girlfriend had once
called them ‘elegant.’ He figured that was a classy way of saying ‘your
feet look like they belong on an anemic, inbred Duke.’ Not
that
he cared.

Who cared about feet, for God’s sake?
That was just
stupid. No one went around comparing their feet to their husband’s and
giving themselves a complex just because their husband had sexier feet.

“Besides,
feet aren’t sexy. Good skin is hot and sexy. Asses are hot and sexy.
Cocks are hot and sexy.” Max choked on his own words as he heard them
out loud. “Uh, that is….”

Glancing up, he realized
Kasan had
stopped talking and was watching him. Max’s entire body tingled as a
flush started working its way down. “Oh God. I didn’t mean….” He
couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to, but he’d just said it, and he
couldn’t help looking at it. Covered by the loincloth, it didn’t
matter. Max could imagine Kasan’s cock in his head…well, sort of. He
hadn’t seen Kasan’s cock all that much, actually.

Kasan smiled at him,
rubbing his thumb over the palm of Max’s hand. “Gisho? You’re not speaking
Hinta. What are you saying, little one?”

Max
was going to blush a hell of a lot worse if he met Kasan’s eyes so he
looked at the ground again. And got hit with the attractive cat feet
like a slap. “Even your freaking toes really are sexy. Everything about
you is… Dammit, how can you be so sexy and hot and- and I’m
just
so…me?”

A hand ruffled his hair, drawing
Max in close and chuckling at the same time.

“It’s
not funny,” Max muttered.

“You are such a quirky little
thing.”

“I
have no idea what you just said, but I bet it would annoy me if I did.
And don’t think that smiling-kissing-fabulous sex thing will make it
better, either.” Even though it probably would.

Max’s
glare
should have helped make himself understood, no matter what language he
was speaking, but Kasan didn’t seem to clue in.

He
only pulled Max in closer, still chuckling. “I am so looking forward to
understanding when you tell me off, little one.”

They
stared at each other until Max blurted out something just to break the
tension. “I’m hungry.”

“Ah,
of course. My apologies, Max.”
Kasan loosened his grip and his hand moved up until it was resting
gently on Max’s shoulder, guiding him into a right turn in the maze of
golden hallways.

Only a few turns later, and Max
recognized the door to the dining room, although only one of the guards
was familiar.

“Davin, Loro.” Kasan frowned
at the two guards. “You
had a double shift, Davin?”

The cat
nodded. “The frenzy –
there were too many new matings to compensate for immediately. I hear
they’ll have the schedule set by tomorrow.”

“I thought Shoru was supposed to
be with you?”

The other cats’ ears
flattened. “You
haven’t heard, then?”

“Heard?”

“He was attacked last night in
the pleasure quarter.”

Kasan sighed
heavily. “By himself,
I’m guessing.”

Davin’s ears went
low. “Yeah
– not that anyone ever said he was a good consort, but I was still
surprised that he went down there alone. He got hurt bad.”

“How badly?”

“I
don’t know. Korosh spoke to Waran about it. Shoru was still
in a
coma this morning; Waran is going to take him to a cousin in town who
can look after him until he regains consciousness.”

Kasan
frowned again and Max reached out for his tail. He wasn’t sure why he
did it; his own cat would have kicked his ass for it. But Kasan’s ears
were so flat, his body tense all over again, and the tip of his tail
had started twitching. Max just grabbed without even thinking.

The
velvet-furred tail settled down in his hand, and Kasan’s body
softened. The other two cats stopped speaking and both guards
stared at Max’s hands with huge, rounded eyes.

Kasan
spoke as though he hadn’t even noticed. “Not
that I’d wish Shoru more than a regular beating to get some of the
attitude out of him, but…he would be the one to run into trouble. I
only hope his stupidity doesn’t put Waran in danger.”

Kasan
nodded to them as they passed through the door and his tail pulled
itself from Max’s hand, slowly, like a happy little snake reluctantly
sliding away. His loincloth was noticeably swollen in the front. Max
glanced back at the tail.

Had that…?

Max
reached out
behind Kasan to stroke it again and Kasan’s stride hitched. The big cat
glanced down and deliberately pulled his tail away again.

“Not now, Gisho,” he
whispered. His hand stroked the edge of Max’s ear. “Later.” He ushered
Max ahead of him, and this time, when Max reached back, the tail
flicked out of the way. Kasan grunted at him.

“Okay, fine. Later.”
Max whispered back. It wasn’t like he wanted sex now. It was just…he’d
never managed to touch something like that and see Kasan react, like
that.

He looked around, and was suddenly very,
very glad that
Kasan had stopped him. Because as usual, barbarian voyeurism was
everywhere. The room was mostly full; hordes of cats, of all ages,
stared at them both. Max avoided their eyes until he saw the
table Kasan was aiming for. He could recognize most of the people.
Zonta, and the Aosh jerk, Jolan and the pale haired Ko, too.
Roto
cast him a smile and waved his fingers like a little kid – the gesture
was weird from such a large guy, but it matched his eyes.

Sitting
down, Max was thinking it would be easier this time. He knew these
people, right? He’d gotten drunk
with some of them; he was pretty sure that was male bonding no matter
what planet you were on. But as they sat there, he couldn’t forget that
every eye was on him, studying him silently.

Hadn’t
they seen him enough already?

The largest one there,
the one holding Roto’s hand, started talking. “How much did you tell your
consort about the Niandrin?”

Kasan
shook his head quickly, glaring and pouring a drink for himself and Max
without asking. Max could feel his shoulders hunching defensively the
second Kasan looked irritated. He didn’t want to be around the cats
when they were pissed off; the first time in Kasan’s room had been
scary enough.

Was the table big enough he could duck
under if things got too rough?

Everyone started
talking at once, too fast for Max to follow, even if the tension at the
table made it clear this was not
a happy subject. He thought he saw one of the cats poke the big one
who’d spoken first.

Roto gestured widely and Max had
to duck to avoid an elbow in the eye. Kasan dragged him against his
side and growled.

Everyone
ignored it and kept right on arguing. Max found himself on Kasan’s lap
– scooped up, plopped down, and wrapped up in Kasan’s arms like a
present. He shivered as Kasan leaned over him.

“Don’t worry, Max. They’re just
upset. Not mad. I’ll keep you safe.”
Kasan kissed the top of Max’s ear and Max shivered again, shifting to
try and get out of Kasan’s lap. He was not coming in front of the whole
room.

Except…it felt so private. With Kasan’s hair
draping over
both of them, Max could barely see anyone. The large arms made a warm
cage around Max’s body. And his cock was long and getting harder under
Max’s ass.

With a swallow, Max reached up and put
his hands on
Kasan’s arms. They were hot – Kasan was always hot – but they weren’t
doing anything.

He wasn’t even paying attention to
Max anymore.
Kasan had lifted his head and was talking with everyone else, now.
Quieter, yeah, but that just…sucked.

He just tucked
Max on top
of his dick, made him think of sex, and then what did the big ass cat
do? He talked. What the hell was up with that? If you were
going
to make your husband think of sex in public, then you should darn well
have sex in public…

Okay, maybe not - definitely not
- sex, but,
well…there had to be something Kasan was doing wrong, because now Max
was really horny and he didn’t get to do anything about it. Last time
he’d been horny, Kasan had taken him out and they’d screwed against a
wall. What made today so different?

And why did it
even freaking matter? There was no wall-sex today. He should be glad.

“I
am still a
nympho,” Max muttered, not feeling glad at all.

No,
he wasn’t going to let this get to him. He didn’t have to think about
Kasan’s cock! He had plenty of stuff to think about. Things that would
help everything seem ‘normal.’ Right. Normal, that was it. He could…he
could eat the food.

He was hungry anyway. It didn't
take him
long at all to get started, trying different dishes, picking out the
words he knew from the conversation around him.

All
perfectly normal for breakfast with in-laws.

His
eyes drifted around as he listened, noting the little kids running all
over the place, the adults following suit at a walk, and everyone
talking a mile a minute. It really was kind of normal, wasn’t it? Just
one big - really big - family.

He looked at the
bodies, trying
to see them as ‘people’ rather than ‘scary-ass, half-naked
aliens.’ The hair caught his eyes first, something that had
more
variety than the ever-present loincloths. Most of it was fairly simple.
Kasan’s black mane was down his back in a long, flowing waterfall.
Zonta had a simple braid down his back. Most of the women had braids
that were wound back up against their scalps. And a lot of the men had
a braid like Zonta’s, but Aosh’s was braided into small, intricate
twists and pulled up high before falling over his shoulders.

There
was no makeup, no piercings, and only a few big pieces of gold or
silver jewelry. Armbands and torques and a couple circlets here and
there – he wondered if they were worn to highlight the tattoos, because
almost everyone had those.

Those were gorgeous.
Brilliant
silver and gold scrolls and curls in some small symbol, with very
little variation that he could see, even for the placement. You either
saw it on someone’s chest, or on their ass. There was so
little
variety, he wondered if they might be clan markings.

And
if they were, was he going to have to get one? God, he hoped not.
Needles made him queasy.

He
twisted his head behind him to look at Kasan; nothing on his
chest. Max had stared at Kasan’s ass enough to know that the
big
cat didn’t have one there. Did they not have to get one, or
was
it something that happened later?

Like, after
marriage?

“Kasan?”

Kasan had been
glaring at the big cat next to them – Tisu, that was it – but he looked
down as soon as he heard Max. “Yes,
little one?”

Kasan
and the others stared at him blankly, and Max pointed to the large cat
with Roto. “Like
him? The color, on front. You get body picture like
him? Or not like?”

Kasan
stared at the larger man and glanced down at his own chest.

“Ah, the marks. Of course,
It’s—Here, let me show you.”
Max was scooped again – what was he, ice cream? – and put on the
cushion next to Kasan. Sweeping his black hair behind his back, Kasan
gestured to his bare chest and then slowly flushed. Chuckles
spread across the table in a dark wave.

“He hasn’t ever seen your mark?”
Roto asked.

Kasan shrugged, and Max yelped as he
was grabbed up again and popped back onto Kasan’s lap. “I…don’t think he has,”
Kasan muttered.

Roto squealed. “Ever? That’s so
romantic!”

Tisu
snorted. “Because
my ‘big’ brother is so horny he can’t stop being aroused near his
consort? I don’t know if romantic is the word I’d choose.”

Max
squirmed a little closer to Kasan’s stomach. That cat was just too damn
big, even in giant cat land.

“You’re only saying that because
you’re not romantic, Tisu.” Zonta smiled.

Roto
was doing some sort of happy dance on his cushion, his ears flickering
back and forth. “What
about his? What does his look like? Is it different
on a human? I didn’t pay attention last time.”

Kasan
blinked at them, and Max wondered what had been said. What
was a mark?
Were they talking about him?
Everyone turned to look at Max and he gulped. Yeah, talking about him,
definitely.

Max
looked up at Kasan to gauge if he should be worried. The smile that
broke out over Kasan’s face made heat pool low in Max’s belly. When
Kasan turned that smile on him, with eyes just as bright as his smile,
Max had a hard time catching his breath.

“I haven’t seen it since the
Greeting.”
Kasan said the words as though they were a surprise to him as much as
anyone, and when he reached out and drew his finger down Max’s nose,
ending at his lips and pressing there gently, Max couldn’t say anything
at all.

Not that anyone would have heard him as
Roto squealed. “The
two of you are just adorable! Tisu, isn’t it so romantic?”

Tisu grunted. “So
they are both so horny for each other that their nanites hardly ever
stay out of their private parts. Again, I don’t think-”

“Well I think it’s romantic.”
Roto glared up at Tisu and the big man wilted. Max was stunned to see
him actually smile after a moment and kiss Roto’s forehead.

“Then I suppose it has to be.”

Max
bit his lip. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to laugh at what
was obviously an ‘I’m so whipped’ moment, although he heard a few
others snorting into their hands. It seemed to break the tension,
whatever it was. People’s voices fell in volume, their ears came up off
their skulls, and Kasan’s arms around Max lost their tension.

Which
meant that Max’s brain could focus on sex all over again. And he didn’t
want that. His whole life here was not going to be about sex. It
couldn’t be. Could it? There had to be other things that he’d learn to
do here.

He had to think of something,
like…activities.
Non-horizontal activities. Maybe Max could go outside on a walk, see
the sun, in some non-blob area? No one was running around anymore, so
that had to mean good things about the blob-infestation, didn’t
it? There had to be, like, blob-free zones or something. And
right now, Max could really, really use some space where he wasn’t
staring at the inside of a building.

Max squirmed,
feeling Kasan
grow hard under his ass again. He lacked that empty feeling that he’d
started to associate with Kasan’s ‘need sex’ times, but the heavy
length against him was filling his head with images that were going to
make it impossible to walk without limping.

His
voice hissed between his teeth. “I can
think of things other then sex. I am not just a nympho, dammit.”

Not
sex. What the hell did he want aside from sex? Max’s mind blanked for a
minute. Oh, yeah…he wanted to go outside. He didn’t want to have to go
near the blobs. He wanted to spend time with Kasan. That made him
pause.

He really did. Max wanted to go on a walk
with Kasan.
He wanted it to be simple for once, with no one watching him, nothing
attacking him. A plain old walk in a garden, like any stupid cat on
this stupid planet would do with their stupid husband. Because he
wanted to be just like any stupid person on this stupid planet, if he
was going to live here. Just…shorter.

He wanted to
fit in, the way he’d never quite fit in back home.

Max
swallowed, closing his eyes. Yeah, like that was going to happen? The
only human on the planet; sure, he’d fit right in. Like a crab on a
tricycle.

Kasan shifted, pulling Max in close, and
Max bit back
an embarrassingly aroused sigh. It was so strange that he felt like he
‘fit’ with Kasan at moments like this, no matter how nervous it made
him at the same time. But he was pretty sure that was…that it was just…
the mind-blowing, amazing, gay sex.

Which didn’t
count. Knowing an alien in the biblical sense still didn’t mean
that-

Wait…could you call anal sex
‘biblical?’ Maybe it was more ‘anti-biblical.’

Not
that it mattered, because he just wanted to go outside, that’s all. His
gay sex life with his giant husband wasn’t the problem.

“I
can’t believe I just thought that.” Except…was it? Or wasn’t it? The
damn sex was so intense that it scared him, but at the same time-

“Max?”
Kasan’s ears swiveled his way.

“N-nothing.”
Flushing, Max sopped up some sour lavender sauce off a plate using a
spongy little piece of bread.

Eating first, walk
second, and sex…

He looked up at Kasan and swallowed
the food in his mouth with an audible gulp.

Sex…as
often as Kasan wanted it?

“This is going to take a
long, long time to feel normal,” he muttered, and grabbed another piece
of bread.